As 2015 comes to a close, we’re once again asking leading figures on the Colorado beer scene to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next.

This next installment in our 5th annual Beer In Review features Lauren Salazar, New Belgium Brewing Company’s wood cellar manager and master blender.

New Belgium, the largest craft beer brewer in Colorado and one of the largest in the nation, is becoming known for its tasty sour collection. Lauren manages all of those barrels full of that tartness. The brewery is known for its exceptional La Folie and Transatlantic Kriek. But has beefed up its menu to include the commercial release of Eric’s Ale, a peach sour, and Hop Tart, a hoppy sour ale.

This is the second installment in this year’s series of previews of breweries pouring at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival, which opens Thursday in Denver. We’ve invited beer writers from across the country to weigh in on the GABF 2014 regions. We’ve also asked everyone to throw in a few wild cards – breweries from anywhere in the country they want to check out.

As 2013 comes to an end, we’re once again asking leading figures on the Colorado beer scene to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next. This fourth installment in the Beer in Review features Nick Nunns, owner and brewer at TRVE Brewing (pronounced “true”). The metal-themed brewery on Broadway in Denver recently added a barrel-aging program and has already gotten some love in this series. Here are Nick’s picks:

As 2013 comes to an end, we’re once again asking leading figures on the Colorado beer scene to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next. This third installment in the Beer in Review features Lauren Salazar, New Belgium Brewing’s wood cellar blender and manager/organoleptic educator. Lauren is very good with sour beer, brevity and “Portlandia” references, as these picks and last year’s attest …

Favorite beer of the year: Still bourbon barrel-aged Abraxas (from Perennial Brewing in St. Louis Prairie Artisan Ales). Sorry, same as last year. It’s that good again!

As 2013 comes to an end, we’re once again asking leading figures on the Colorado beer scene to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next. This second installment in the Beer in Review features Drew and Leah Watson of Hops and Pie, the craft beer bar in northwest Denver that specializes in constantly rotating taps and rarities. Here are their picks:

Beer geek nirvana at the What the Funk!? Festival (Eric Gorski, The Denver Post)

The longest lines and biggest buzz at Friday’s inaugural What the Funk!? Festival in Denver was for a brewery that isn’t even open.

Miami homebrewer Johnathan Wakefield’s J. Wakefield Brewing, which is set to open in early 2014 with capital from a big crowd-funding success, wowed the sold-out crowd of beer geeks with a pair of bright, fruity and tart Berliner Weisses, or Florida Weisses.

Plenty to smile about at Hops and Pie this week (that’s bartender Adam Del Re, photo by Grant Hindsley, The Denver Post).

We launched our blog post tracking this year’s GABF Week happenings way back on August 10 when word of planned events first started trickling in. (Oskar Blues Ordeal, has it been that long?). Since then, the post has kept growing and growing, testing the very limits of the Internet.

The task of deciding what to hit this week can be daunting. So we’ve compiled a list of our picks – the tappings, dinners and tours that sound most intriguing.

Beer geeks, make room on your Great American Beer Festival Week calendar: Denver’s Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project is staging a major new side festival featuring specialty barrel-aged beers from about 30 rising breweries from across the country, several of which are not pouring at GABF.

Scores of events now populate the biggest week of the beer year. The new What the Funk!? Festival stands out because it will take place during a GABF session – from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11. Here are details, on Crooked Stave’s Facebook page. Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. MT Sept. 3 and cost $80.

Most beer dinners, tappings and other events are planned to fill in the gaps between sessions. But with GABF tickets increasingly a difficult get and some backlash against the main event, expect more counter-programming in the future.

Crooked Stave owner and head brewer Chad Yakobson said about 600 tickets will be for sale for the event, which will take place at the Sherman Street Events Center in Denver. The festival is a co-production of Crooked Stave and Chandra Ruiz’s Funk’n Wild Beer Club, which has staged events at Oskar Blues venues.

Our new iPad app serves as a guide to metro Denver’s bountiful breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, the holy trinity of craft beer enjoyment for followers and fans. Download the app for iPad .
Next time you head for a beer in Boulder, don’t forget your friend, Beers of Boulder and Boulder County, an iPad app from the Daily Camera. Download the app for iPad .

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In Colorado, our pint glasses overflow with excellent beer. New breweries, new batches, festivals every other week. How lucky are we? First Drafts is The Denver Post's beer blog aimed at helping you keep tabs on the state's ever-expanding craft beer culture. We offer a mash of news, event coverage, homegrown stories, tasting notes and tips to help you imbibe. Expert drinker or homebrewer? Let us know what you're loving about Colorado's beer scene. Not sure exactly what a firkin is? No worries, let us be your guide. Go ahead. Belly up and drink it in!